The Press Conference
by midnightsnapdragon
Summary: When Cinder hosts a press conference meant to answer the questions of her people, the subject immediately turns to suitors ... and what the emperor might have to do with it. Then, when she returns to the Commonwealth to attend her first peace festival as queen, she and Kai must reconsider the front they present to the public. [Set post-Winter, written pre-Winter.]
1. Practice Interview (with Iko)

TRIAL RUN (WITH IKO)

IKO: 31st of November, 126 T.E. This is a practice session for Her Majesty, Queen Selene – also known as Linh Cinder –for her first press conference. I, her best friend in the galaxy, will be interviewing her. Are you ready, Cinder?

CINDER: [deep sigh] Ready. Go easy on me, will you?

IKO: Not a chance! You think those reporters will go easy on you? You think they won't ask you the most personal, awkward questions? Ha!

CINDER: And you know a lot about personal and awkward questions.

IKO: The whole point of this exercise is to get you ready for that press conference. So no cop-outs, no silence, and no avoiding the questions!

CINDER: Yes, fine.

IKO: Especially not the questions about His Imperial Majesty and what you intend to do about an heir, because I've been dying to know about –

CINDER: Iko, ENOUGH.

IKO: Okay, first question: what will happen to the marriage alliance with the Emperor Kaito?

CINDER: Cancelled.

IKO: Why?

CINDER: [deep breath] The marriage was cancelled because it was something Queen Levana did in her rule, which I am not going to follow. She did it to further her own objectives and gain power on Earth. And she used a really sick form of – I don't know what you'd call it; it's not blackmail and it's not holding hostage, but it's something in between – she played on his selflessness and caring about the citizens of the world. Anyway, the marriage alliance is unnecessary, since I'm going to sign the Treaty of Bremen without any conditions.

IKO: Hmm. Selfless and caring, is he?

CINDER: Yes, quite.

IKO: But you aren't after legitimate power on Earth. You don't have ulterior motives for wanting to marry him, as far as I can tell, so why not just go through with it?

CINDER: Who said I want to marry him?

IKO: I do. Thorne did. Oh, and Cress did, she sees just about everything. She knows, by the way, that he likes you.

CINDER: Well, I don't plan on a marriage alliance.

IKO: No need to glare at me. Do you like him?

CINDER: Great stars, Iko, all I want is to leave Earth in peace!

IKO: So ... you do, or you don't?

CINDER: This isn't the kind of question a reporter would ask!

IKO: They might, though. Are you going to act like this behind the podium? Because if so -

CINDER: Iko, I don't want to marry him. Next question?

IKO: Do you have any legitimate proof of your birthright?

CINDER: [relieved sigh] Finally, a normal question! Yes, I do. My DNA matches with that of three-year-old Sel – Iko, pause the recording. There are going to be scientists on hand to testify, right?

IKO: I'm sure there will be. Anyway, that question's too easy. [clears throat] Why did you not know that you were Lunar? Why didn't the gift make itself known?

CINDER: [groan] Please, Iko, I've already got that explanation memorized. Don't make me recite it now.

IKO: [devious chuckle] As you wish, my friend. What do you intend to do about an heir? And will Emperor Kaito have any say in this?

CINDER: [chokes] Stars! WHY?

IKO: The reporters won't take no for an answer.

CINDER: I want to go back to explaining my stepfather's prototype.

IKO: Too late. Answer the question.

CINDER: Ugh, fine. I'm not going to think about heirs until everything on Luna is sorted, until I've figured this queen thing out, and I don't see that the emperor has anything to do with this!

IKO: ... 'I don't see that her being cyborg is relevant.'

CINDER: Of all the - ! IKO!

IKO: [hee,hee] That's answer enough. For now. What of your handsome accomplice, Carswell Thorne?

CINDER: That's for President Vargas to decide, but I hope his heroic deeds in the revolution will make up for his past crimes.

IKO: And what of the wolf hybrids?

CINDER: [slow breath] They will be put down. We cannot afford to use resources and time to contain such unstable and dangerous creatures. Special operatives be given a little more freedom, but they will not be allowed to Earth until they show that they can make choices independent of their wolflike tendencies. My friend and pilot Captain Scarlet Benoit will oversee the procedures.

IKO: Ooh, you're getting good at this. Now a hard question. Is it true that after His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Kaito, invited you to the ball, you spent – [squee] - seven minutes alone with him in an elevator.

CINDER: It's true.

IKO: ...Aaaaaand?

CINDER: Yes?

IKO: What ... were you doing ... in the elevator?

CINDER: [sigh] Politely refusing his invitation. Next question?

IKO: What happened when Emperor Kaito joined your Rampion crew?

CINDER: What do you mean?

IKO: After the elevator thing, and the ball thing . . . just how acquainted are you with His Majesty?

CINDER: Oh, NOW you're asking how well we know each other? Whatever happened to assuming we were engaged?

IKO: ...

CINDER: We are friends. Nothing more.

IKO: ... [heh]

CINDER: NEXT QUESTION.

IKO: Audio recording devices from the ball show you saying to the Emperor [clears throat] "Perhaps the queen will not accept your proposal, once she finds out you're already in love with me!"

CINDER: So I did.

IKO: Also, you kissed him.

CINDER: Your point is?

IKO: You could have just said that he was in love with you. The kiss was unnecessary.

CINDER: I had only one shot to convince Levana and stop the marriage alliance. I wasn't going to take chances.

IKO: Ugh, fine, there's no way around this. Are you in love with him?

CINDER: [deep breath] No.

IKO: Hmm. I really like this new body of mine, you know that?

CINDER: You - what?

IKO: I'm as human as can be, I have actual hair now, and I can do everything anyone can do. Oh, and I have a lie detector in my retina scanner.

CINDER: ... Oh.

IKO: [smug silence]

CINDER: [faintly] So ... when I said I didn't want to marry him ... and that we were just friends ... and ...

IKO: [singsong] I-have-a-lie-detector! YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH THE EM-PE-ROOOOOR!

CINDER: Goodbye. I think I'll take my chances with the media.

IKO: Wait, Cinder - ! Come back, I'm not finished! And what do you think you're – oh, you wanna have the last word? You want to have a dramatic exit? TOO BAD! [running footsteps] [calls from far away] YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME, I KNOW THIS PALACE BETTER THAN YOU DO – oh stars, where's that recorder? – OOPS – UMPH –

[static]


	2. Practice Interview (with Kai)

KAI: 29 November, 126 T.E., after the Fifth World War. This is a test interview for Her Lunar Majesty, Queen Selene - also known as Linh Cinder - to prepare her for her first press conference. Are you ready?

CINDER: Uh. Yes?

KAI: [chuckle] That was terrible. You're a politician now. The proper response is, "I was born ready."

CINDER: [groan] The world has a cruel sense of irony.

KAI: Believe me, I know. Did I ever tell you about that time when I was looking for a missing Lunar princess, and all along it had been the girl I'd thrown into prison, suspected of knowing where the princess was, and fallen in love with? She'd been right under my nose the whole time.

CINDER: [snort] I've heard that one before. I still can't believe you didn't figure it out earlier. Especially after I said that I had responsibilities and a country of people relying on me. Didn't it once cross your mind?

KAI: [cheerfully] I have no idea what you're talking about. That was Linh Cinder. It's a shame you haven't met; you would have liked her. Anyway, first question: why did you kidnap the emperor?

CINDER: It was part of my master plan to get back on Luna and claim my throne?

KAI: I don't think the press will take that as an answer. Oh, and you shouldn't let them know that you doubt yourself. Be firm. Your answers shouldn't sound like questions.

CINDER: Got it. Er ... I kidnapped the emperor because it was the sure-fire way to put a halt to the wedding. One can't have a marriage without the bride and the groom. And since doing away with the bride wasn't an option, it had to be him.

KAI: [snicker] "Doing away with the bride"?

CINDER: [defensively] Well, yes!

KAI: I think the politically correct term would be "to compromise her position".

CINDER: But that means "kidnapping" isn't politically correct either. You want me to tell them I 'compromised your position'?

KAI: ... No, that wouldn't work either. I think they might misunderstand.

CINDER: [sweetly] The way they misunderstood about the ball?

KAI: Next question: will you sign the Treaty of Bremen?

CINDER: Yes, I will. Without conditions.

KAI: What have the other Earthen leaders said of the sudden ... turnaround of Luna's stance on alliance?

CINDER: [tightly] They've been rather ungrateful.

KAI: Diplomacy, Cinder. Diplomacy.

CINDER: Right. [deep breath] We all agreed that Luna's change of heart was for the best, and that it should have happened a long time ago.

KAI: Did they really say that?

CINDER: I believe "You took your time" were Camilla's exact words.

KAI: Gah. I'm afraid we'll all have to put up with her until one of her three sons take her place.

CINDER: Are you sure they'd be better than her? They're all made of the same English mould, aren't they?

[pause]

KAI: No, you're right. Instead of being a grump, they'd probably flirt with you.

CINDER: [uncomfortable laugh] They wouldn't dare.

KAI: You're not so fearsome over netlink. You can't manipulate technology, remember? Just be prepared for them to offer personal negotiations.

CINDER: [voice higher] Personal negotiations?

KAI: [thoughtfully] I wouldn't be surprised if they tried for a marriage alliance.

CINDER: UGHHGHGH.

KAI: Ha. That's only a fraction of how I felt when _Levana_ demanded. But perhaps you're already taken, no? Politically? So your next question is: what will happen to the marriage alliance with Emperor Kaito?

CINDER: What? Not you, too!

[pause]

CINDER: Did ... did Iko tell you about our practice interview?

KAI: [devious chuckle] Not exactly.

CINDER: Stars - is that - ?!

KAI: The portscreen with the recording? Maybe.

CINDER: ]slow inhale] [slow exhale] I'd like it back, please. It belongs to me.

KAI: Oh, really? But I'm mentioned in the interview. Maybe I deserve to know what you were discussing behind my back.

CINDER: [growl] Give it back!

KAI: Oh, your nostrils are flaring. It's so cute.

CINDER: [grits teeth] I'll give you _cute_ –

[chairs scrape floor]

[running footsteps]

CINDER: [voice farther] Give it - to me -

[grunt]

KAI: Ha!

CINDER: [voice high pitched] That isn't fair! You're taller than me!

KAI: The only way to get it back is to ask nicely.

CINDER: I can't believe you're doing this. Please? Please can I have the portscreen back?

[port taps]

[click]

 _" - get you ready for that press conference. So no cop-outs, no - "_

CINDER: Oh my stars, GIVE ME THE PORT!

 _"Especially not the questions about His Imperial Majesty and what you intend to - "_

[click]

CINDER: [heavy breathing] Don't you dare.

KAI: How about this: you are making a political trade. You have to ask diplomatically for the port and give good reasons for wanting it back.

CINDER: Seriously?

KAI: It's an exercise. I think you'll find this much more effective than the pretend interview.

CINDER: You're smiling! Why are you smiling?

KAI: You don't get to complain when you've got fifty cameras trained on you.

CINDER: [sigh] I'm going to get you back for this.

KAI: Public threats, Your Majesty? Tsk.

[pause]

CINDER: Your Majesty, I would like you to give me my portscreen back. You have no right to be in possession of it, as it belongs to me, and it has confidential information that may only be accessed by myself and my closest advisors. To read this information would be a violation of ... um. It would be a violation.

KAI: Look at you! [claps] Very well done. See, you can be diplomatic when you want to be.

CINDER: Good, now give me my port!

KAI: What if someone refuses to let this go? What if they ask for something in return?

CINDER: Are you kidding me?

KAI: All is fair in love and war.

CINDER: There's only war here!

KAI: Not true. I would like to demand a kiss in exchange for your port.

[pause]

CINDER: H-have you been conspiring with Iko?

KAI: Nope.

CINDER: Cress?

KAI: Uh-uh.

[pause]

CINDER: You're serious, aren't you.

KAI: Very serious.

CINDER: [clears throat] Your Majesty, as you mentioned before, we have fifty cameras trained on us. We are being watched.

[slow footsteps]

KAI: So we are.

CINDER: This isn't very diplomatic!

KAI: Love and war, remember? Diplomacy has no place here.

[pause]

CINDER: [whisper] It's a deal.

[silence]

KAI: Who knew you'd be willing to make such a scandalous transaction?

CINDER: Idiot.

[silence]

[door opens]

CINDER: [gasp] Oh, stars!

TORIN: What are you two doing?

KAI: Practisingforthepressconference.

[pause]

TORIN: [skeptically] Practising.

CINDER: Not like that.

KAI: We got a bit carried away.

CINDER: He did ask me some questions.

KAI: About Luna. And the Treaty of Bremen.

CINDER: Torin, would Camilla's sons actually flirt with me? Because I'm not as terrifying as Levana? Kai seems to think that could legitimately happen, and I'm a little wor-

TORIN: Your Majesty, I don't think anyone would try to court you once they know the emperor already is. In which case, go ahead and carry on with what you were doing. I'm sure it will prove very useful practice for when you announce your relationship to the world.

[pause]

CINDER: Announce ... our ... relationship?

TORIN: [dryly] You do realize that a marriage alliance would solve this problem?

[mortified silence]

TORIN: I'll leave you to it.

[door closes]

[pause]

CINDER: Kai, is that recorder still on?

KAI: The recorder? Oh, I can't believe it. [footsteps] I can't believe I forgot about th-

[end of recording]


	3. Getting Ready

Cinder took a deep breath and looked in the mirror.

The dress was black and long-sleeved, embroidered with silver, and pulled her completely out of her comfort zone. The silver linings were designed in traditional Lunar fashion, while the black was for the war and all the lives that had been lost.

Also, it was the only colour she was comfortable with at the moment. Especially in a dress.

"You look lovely," Iko sang, bounding across her bedroom to snatch a necklace from the boudoir – the only form of gaudy adornment Cinder tolerated. "Wait till Kai sees you."

Cinder cringed. "The whole world will see me today. I'm a bit more concerned with that. What will they think of a Lunar sovereign who doesn't use her glamour?"

Iko came back to stand behind her, and their eyes met in the mirror. The android gently swept Cinder's hair away – it was almost to her mid-back now – and placed the glittering necklace around her neck.

"They will admire you for it," Iko said softly. For once there was no teasing glint in her eye, no giddy smile. Cinder didn't know how Iko knew what kind of support she needed, and when; the android was sometimes aware of what Cinder wasn't. "They will love you for being you."

"They don't know me."

"No, but they know that you aren't hiding. They know you don't use glamour. They know you're not Levana. Isn't that enough to appreciate the change you've brought?"

Cinder bit her lip as Iko pinned her brown hair to her head with a brooch made of the shiny Lunar metal. She looked at herself in the mirror again, and shook her head. Cinder looked every bit as young and inexperienced as she felt. Young, ignorant, and utterly terrified. What did Iko see that she didn't?

"Cinder."

Their eyes met in the mirror.

"You're fit to be a queen."

She frowned.

"Maybe you don't know it now. But I do. Kai does, and Winter does. Even Torin admitted that you would be a fine sovereign, if only because you know what is right for the world. Even if you don't trust my opinion, you should trust theirs."

"Because they're all politicians?"

"No, Cinder, because they all have experience dealing with psychopathic Lunar queens." Iko leaned in close and whispered in her ear like a demented ghost. "They know the signs."

Cinder took one look at Iko's mock-horror eyes in the mirror, and burst out laughing. "You've gotten even better at sarcasm than some humans I know. Including Kai."

Iko brightened. "That's saying a lot, right? Maybe it was his sarcasm that first overwhelmed Nainsi's programming, not his hotness."

Cinder turned away from the mirror winked at her friend. "I think I'm going with the uncanny hotness theory."

Iko pointed at her. "See, you can be flirtatious!" When Cinder rolled her eyes, she pressed on, unperturbed. "The next step is to be flirtatious to his face, because you have to make up for all the times he's made a move and you responded with some freakishly neutral response. Like that time when he joined you in the Rampion's engine room and you were looking at the workings of the ship, and he said, 'Sometimes I think people are even more complicated than androids or ships,' and you said, 'Maybe that's why I'm a mechanic,' which I admit is very suggestive of you, but you should have –"

Cinder drew her brows together. "How do you know about that?"

Iko's eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

Cinder narrowed her eyes. "If you've been spying on us, Iko – "

"No time!" Iko grabbed her wrist and pulled her out the door. "The conference starts in five minutes. You'll have to redo my wiring later."


	4. Questions for the Queen

When she strode up to the podium, hands clasped before her and expression carefully neutral, the crowded room silenced immediately. She heard the beep of cameras clicking on, and the sudden hush became a roaring in her ears.

This conference would give them the first impression of their young sovereign, and it could change everything.

"Good afternoon," she began in an even tone. "I have called this conference to answer Luna's questions regarding the revolution, our new stance on alliance with Earth, and how things may change on Luna under my rule."

Cinder had been planning a bit of an introductory speech, but she had barely finished speaking before several eager hands shot up. She sighed inwardly and accepted that this was going to be a long hour. "Yes? In the front row?"

"Your Majesty, why haven't you claimed your birthright before the events of this fall?"

Cinder had practised her response so much that it rolled tastelessly off her tongue. "I was brought to Earth after Levana tried to kill me," she recited. "I lay in a suspended animation tank for eight years as my surgeons worked to save me and implement the cybernetics. When I woke up, I was told that I was Linh Cinder, and that I was the only survivor of the hover crash that had killed both my parents. I had no memory of my previous life at all. I didn't even know that I was Lunar."

A murmur went through the crowd. Cinder lifted her chin marginally. Let them make of that what they would; it was the truth.

She nodded at a young man in the middle of the crowd.

"How is that possible, Your Majesty?" he called. "Wouldn't the gift have made it obvious?"

Here we go.

"My stepfather," she started, and stopped abruptly. What right did she have to tell his story? To cross the lives of the Linh family with this political mess? How could she reconcile her true identity with the life she'd had for four years, the only life she could remember?

She forced her way past the lump in her throat. There was no way around it. She would not lie to anyone; she would not apologize.

"My stepfather, Linh Garan, was an of the inventions he never got past the prototype phase was a bioelectricity block. Its main purpose, in an Earthen, was to protect them from a Lunar's influence."

Several shocked faces greeted her. Lunars rather took pride in their mental abilities; the idea that they weren't so fearsome after all to Earthens would probably be horrific to them. Cinder plowed on, knowing the worst was yet to come.

"In a Lunar, the device's purpose was to block the gift completely. The Lunar wouldn't be able to - "

Outcries rose up from the mass, and though her first instinct was to yell at them to shut up and listen, Cinder merely held up a hand. To her surprise, the Lunars quieted, though they still looked scandalized.

"The Lunar wouldn't be able to access their gift at all," she finished. "One would also be protected from the psychological side effects of not using it for long periods of time. It would be as if the power didn't exist. That," she said, tapping her neck - several cameras followed her movement - "was how I was able to pass for an Earthen for so long. I had one installed during my operation. When I met Dr. Dmitri Erland at the palace, he disabled it; my gift came and went for a few weeks before resurfacing completely at the Commonwealth ball." She inhaled deeply, waiting for a reaction.

"Your Majesty," someone called without waiting for permission to speak. "Are any of these devices still in existence? If so, are you planning to use them?"

There were worried nods among the audience. Cinder wiped her features clean of emotion. "Crescent Moon Darnel, my good friend and ally, has been able to find records of the devices' inner workings and the installing procedure. I will be negotiating with the leaders of the Earthen Union about the law we'll no doubt have to implement regarding these blocks, but as soon as our research team figures out how to manufacture them, our medics will be offering the procedure to anyone who wishes to have it done. Yes, er ... third row?"

"So it will be optional?"

Cinder paused. This was the delicate part. "I will not force it onto anyone. But there may be extreme cases. Any Lunar who is found guilty of ..." Diplomacy, she thought "... extensively misusing their gift, and has an long record of doing so, will be given the operation, to prevent any further illegalities or disruptions of justice. However, this is only a last resort. To prevent the abuse of the glamour, I will be stationing androids all across Luna to deal with matters that mind manipulation could influence. Any pictures or video they record will be confidential. No one's privacy will be violated."

There was a hum in the crowd, half approving, half displeased. None of them were fond of the idea that their powers would be capped, but Cinder's method was, for all intents and purposes, quite fair.

Cinder nodded at a man in the front row. He cleared his throat nervously. "Your Majesty, if I may ask ..."

"That's what a press conference is for," she said dryly. "Go ahead."

He cleared his throat again, looking as if he regretted speaking out. "Your Majesty, am I correct in believing the rumour that you don't use your glamour?"

"You are correct."

"Then ..." The man didn't meet Cinder's eyes. "Why is that, Your Majesty?"

These people were, doubtlessly, glamoured. She saw multicoloured hair, straight noses, perfect figures, outrageous fashion, and she wanted to shake her head at them all. Lunars. She was nothing like them. She didn't want to be their queen. How ridiculous, to be the one questioned and not the one watching; the one followed and monitored to no end; the one who governed a country. One person out of a billion, and it had to be her.

Her luck, it seemed, hadn't changed one bit.

"I don't use my glamour," she explained, "because I don't believe in concealing my appearance. Mind manipulation is what causes the mutiny between Earthens and Lunars; if nothing else, I strive to erase that hatred and achieve true peace between our nations."

Stunned, skeptical glances from around the room. She may as well have said that she didn't believe in being Lunar.

She gestured to a handsome, fine-boned man in the far corner of the room, who looked surprised that she had noticed him. He shifted the camera on his shoulder to focus it more clearly on her. "How long have you, er, believed this, Your Majesty?"

"Since my gift came back. Of course," she hurried to add, "between breaking out of prison and claiming my throne, I have used it." No need to explain how valuable an asset it had been. "But I plan on not using it from now on, except perhaps in life-or-death circumstances. Both for me and mine, and all citizens of Earth and Luna."

In other words, if there was another war.

Another hand caught her eye. Cinder gestured for the woman to ask.

"It is clear now that Queen Levana used her glamour to keep unruly citizens under control. As you do not follow her example, what else will you change about the way Luna is governed?"

Cinder drew in a slow breath, surveying the room. She felt herself relaxing, getting into the rhythm of the back-and-forth. She could even feel the press softening. "I will not be doing what she did, it is true. If any of my people object to me or the way I govern Luna, I will do whatever I can to resolve the conflict without using my gift. Also, Luna will begin trading with the Earthen Union for resources we do not have, and we will continue manufacturing more of the letumosis antidote to give to the Earthen countries."

"Will you be signing the Treaty of Bremen?"

"I already have. Without conditions. Yes?"

A man with a sky-blue tint to his skin spoke up, his tone curious but not overly prying, a pitiful disguise for the nature of the question."Are you planning on an heir in our near future?"

Oh, stars. Anything but that.

"No," she said, meaning to close the subject.

"Perhaps in a few years, Your Majesty?"

"I'm afraid not."

"But the throne must have a successor!"

Cinder removed her hands from the podium. She was sure the cameras had been watching them for minuscule twitches. Her thoughts flickered, briefly, to Kai, before she shoved them away. "I will think about producing an heir," she said, pleading to the heavens for patience, "when we have achieved peace with Earth and stabilized our economy. As it is, we all have work to do. Next question?"

"Are there any possible suitors, Your Majesty?" She wasn't sure who'd said it.

Couldn't they leave it well enough alone? "No." If they started asking about Kai, she would have to intervene. She'd sworn to herself that she would tell the truth, but she had to protect him.

She nodded at a woman with her hand ramrod-straight in the air.

"What about Queen Camilla's sons?"

"I haven't met the Earthen leaders in person, let alone their families," she hedged.

"Prime Minister Bromstad is a very handsome man," said a young lady mischievously. Several people nodded, eyes alight.

"He must be thirty years older than me," Cinder objected.

She knew instantly that it was the wrong thing to say.

"Then, perhaps, someone closer to your age?" the young lady inquired innocently. Several Lunar pressmen exchanged knowing smiles. "The emperor is only two years your elder, no?"

There were several outcries of "Yes!" as reporters began clamouring for her attention, waving their hands in the air; Cinder vehemently cursed her own stupidity, cursed the one moment she had to slip up during a conference. Now they would never let it go.

She held up a hand. "I wasn't implying - "

"Your Majesty, when you said at the ball that he was in love with you, was it true?"

"No, I was - "

"According to sources at the Commonwealth palace, you spent seven minutes in an elevator with him - "

"It's not - !"

" - after he invited you to the annual ball! What were you doing in - "

"How well do you know the emperor?"

"We are friends, as can be expected - "

"Has he ever - "

Quite fed up with the questions - honestly, they were worse than Iko - Cinder tapped harshly on the podium's microphone. The press quieted down enough for her to be speak above the noise.

"I will not be considering suitors any time soon, and that is final," she declared, panic simmering just below the surface. "Thank you; that will be all for today."

With that, she strode off the stage, ignoring the insistent queries of the press behind her. She tried not to consider that no one, not Earth or Kai or her friends, would ever let her forget this.


	5. Torin Speaks

Konn Torin didn't smile often, and laughed even less. Especially over the past few months. On the rare occasions that Kai succeeded in winning a smile from him, the mirth would die as soon as Torin remembered the existence of Lunars, the plague, and every damn politician he would have to put up with in his lifetime.

When Queen Selene came on stage for her press conference, he was watching the event back in the Eastern Commonwealth, the young emperor sprawled on the office couch beside him. They'd both expected the media questioning Selene to be fearful and hesitant, given their record of queens, but that was not what happened. The reporters were eager, jostling each other for her attention, and there hadn't been a single question about her cybernetics (even nosy Lunars drew the line at that).

At first they asked about her past and principles. Then it was Linh Garan's device and the changes to Lunar society. It wasn't long, of course, before they began pestering her about suitors.

The queen objected to a suggested man because of his age, and that was all the invitation they needed. A commotion rose from the crowd, the reporters deciding that there was only one suitable man for Selene Blackburn (perhaps she would pick up where Levana left off) - someone much, much closer to her age.

Yes, Torin's laughter was hard to come by. But at Selene's nervous, sketchy attempts at avoiding the questions, he couldn't suppress a bemused chuckle. It wasn't long ago that he had been teaching Kai how to disguise his emotions in public, so that no one could use them against him, to prevent exactly this sort of thing. Obviously, Selene had not gotten the same education.

When someone shouted something about an elevator, and Torin glimpsed the priceless expression on Kai's face, the chuckle turned into a laugh. It was a wheezy sort of laugh, rusty from disuse, but a laugh all the same.

Torin didn't bother to hide his surprise when he accepted Linh Cinder's netlink call. It was unusual for a sovereign to comm someone of lower rank from a different country, but perhaps she didn't mind such forward behaviour, seeing as their last interaction had been less than cordial.

It would grate on him to be polite now, after she'd made a scene at the ball, escaped prison as a criminal and shot Kaito, but Torin was nothing if not a natural politician.

When the camera on her end stabilized, her tired frown was the first thing he saw. The background was dim, but he could make out a simple office with a set of sofas around a table. Cinder was sitting on one of them, still wearing the black dress, hair tangled beyond the stars.

It was difficult to reconcile this Selene, the missing Lunar princess, with Linh Cinder, the cyborg fugitive who'd finished a war. Torin hadn't forgotten how easily the embarrassed, rambling girl who'd snuck into the palace had become ruthless when she didn't get what she wanted.

But she seemed so like the young emperor, a harassed sovereign completely new to the world of politics. She'd already started to unravel Levana's deeds, and Torin had seen the genuine panic in her eyes when the media had questioned her about Kai.

"Hello, Torin," said Cinder, squinting like she hadn't gotten enough sleep. "Er, good afternoon. Morning. What time is it in the Commonwealth?"

"Evening, Your Majesty," Torin greeted her, fighting his second smile of the day. "I'm glad to see your first press conference went smoothly."

The exhaustion was instantly gone. "Thank you," she said carefully. "You were watching?"

"I think all of Earth was watching, Your Majesty."

"I don't suppose -" Cinder's voice wavered slightly. "I don't suppose the emperor missed it?"

"He watched it along with me, Your Majesty."

The queen remained still as stone. "Well, none of it was a surprise. I saw it coming, I just didn't know what to do about it." She scrutinized Torin through the netscreen. "That's actually what I wanted to ask you about. Sort of."

"I don't follow, Your Majesty."

"Well ..." Looking intensely uncomfortable, she crossed one leg over the other, apparently remembered that she was wearing a dress, and uncrossed it. She clasped her hands before her. "You and I both know it didn't go smoothly at all."

He waited, a bit suspicious at why she was speaking with him as if he were her adviser.

"I hope it isn't too forward" she went on, "to ask for your advice in politics."

Torin hid his annoyance. "Wouldn't your advisers be fit for this job, Your Majesty?"

"I don't have any at the moment. I won't for a while, at least not before the next time I have to answer questions."

"I'm sure anyone would advise you, if so asked."

Cinder sighed. "I did ask a few people, but it didn't work out too well. I'm sure you remember. Besides, almost everyone in my court is biased against Earthens, which means that their help would be biased too. They still think like Levana. I refuse to take advice from them."

At Torin's skeptical expression, the queen held up her hands in the universal gesture for "Patience!" and plowed on.

"I can think of no one better to help me in this: you have more experience in politics than anyone else I know, especially in dealing with Lunars, and Kai trusts you completely. " She paused for breath. "I'm asking for more than performance feedback. I need to know how my actions affect Earth, and I need to be aware of the true repercussions of my decisions. I can't trust myself to see them, but I know you would."

Torin considered.

When he'd first seen Linh Cinder, she'd been dancing with Kaito at the ball. At first, he'd thought her a silly girl, insignificant in the face of all their negotiations with Queen Levana. Then, out of nowhere, she'd become intertwined in those issues herself. One Lunar attack, marriage proposal and botched wedding later, Torin had been cursing her to the moon and back.

Literally.

But Levana had never been so open; she'd never spoken with mere Earthens unless she could gain something from it. Torin had only ever seen this kind of awkward hesitance around Kai - the human, compassionate, dutiful way one had of shouldering of an immense burden. The young emperor believed in her. Despite his inexperience, Kai had good judgement: his instinct had won, time and again, against Torin's logic.

Logic told him she was about as trustworthy as any other Lunar.

Kai told him otherwise. Trust her, he said, to not be like Levana.

If Selene were to be a better ruler than her predecessor, Torin could keep an eye on her. For the good of Earth.

"If I may speak freely," he said finally, because the queen was certainly speaking freely with him, "I will not be your adviser, Your Majesty. My time and loyalties are with the Commonwealth. But," he added, seeing Cinder's slight crestfallen slump, "if you ever need my point of view, you may ask."

"Thank you, Torin."

He waited.

"So -" Cinder waved her hands vaguely "- shall we begin with avoiding questions?"

"Very well," Torin relented, resigned. "There are different ways to deal with that, but it is better to make it clear the subject is closed. They won't object, as a rule of etiquette. Now if ..."


	6. Opinions

**i.**

When it was time to watch the conference, Thorne made popcorn.

Scarlet scolded him for being insensitive, even as she ushered them all into the Lunar Queen's office; even as she, along with Cress and Wolf, piled onto the office couch and bored their eyes into the netscreen like socialites about to pounce on a juicy bit of gossip.

"You're one to talk," Thorne drawled, lazily flicking a popcorn kernel into Scarlet's curls. "Who declared that she'd be the first to shoot our illustrious queen if she showed the slightest sign of Levana-likeness?"

Scarlet huffed. "Well, _someone_ would have to -"

"And who told Winter she'd need to toughen up if she wanted to help rule a country?" Cress blurted. Thorne gave her an approving look.

When Scarlet rolled her eyes, not bothering with a response, Wolf nudged her. "You're in a good mood today. When Jacin snapped at you for saying that to Winter, you just about bit his head off."

"Don't even talk to me about him. _Le connard!_ He had the nerve to tell Cress that she should learn to speak up for herself." She wrapped an arm around Cress, who looked half pleased and half terrified of the fiery Frenchwoman who held her like a sister, especially when said Frenchwoman growled, "One of these days I'm going to wring his neck."

Wolf, almost timidly, plucked the popcorn kernel from Scarlet's hair, wisely not commenting.

Cress cleared her throat. "He's not ... he's not that bad."

Scarlet pulled back just enough to give her a shocked look. " _'Not bad'_?"

Thorne barked a laugh and dropped onto the couch on Cress's other side. He, too, sat much closer to her than a friend might have, but the motion was so breezy that it could have been a casual mistake (though all four of them knew it wasn't).

"Screen, on," he commanded, and the netscreen lit up to a blue home screen with the Lunar insignia. "Channel zero-six-nine." Then, turning to Cress, he grinned. "I wouldn't have pegged you for a defender of dearest Sir Clay. What gives?"

Cress sat up a little straighter. "Winter believes in him, so I do too. She says that, yeah, he _might_ act like a scheming, untrustworthy sod sometimes, but he's actually the kindest, most loyal person you could ever meet."

"He's a good shot," Wolf offered.

Scarlet scoffed. " _I'm_ a good shot, and I've yet to see what he's made of. Besides, he was Sybil Mira's guard - and I ask you, does that say more about his skill with firearms or about his own character? What kind of person is he, if he was assigned to that heartless, sadistic little -"

"All right!" Wolf held up his hands, palms-out, in surrender, clearly regretting ever having said anything. "We get it. You hate him."

"Damn right I do," she muttered.

Cress leaned forward suddenly, shushing them, and the other three turned to the netscreen.

The small conference room was teeming with Lunar media, bustling and chatting while they waited for the queen to arrive. The camera must have been embedded into the back wall, just over the door, because there was a good view of the small stage at the front of the room. That empty space compelled attention with an almost tangible magnetism - broken only when a figure in a slim black dress walked onto it, and the whole room fell silent.

"That's her!" Cress whispered excitedly.

A slow grin spread over Thorne's face as he, too, leaned forward in anticipation. "Come on, Cinder," he said. "Let's see what you've got."

 **ii.**

By the time Cinder walked off the stage, the Lunars clamoring behind her, Thorne was roaring with laughter.

"' _Perhaps in a few years, Your Majesty?_ '" he mimicked, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. "' _Nope, sorry, I have work to do_. _Maybe when we've achieved world peace._ '" Gasping for breath, he collapsed over the arm of the couch, positively shaking.

The other three exchanged glances, not quite sure what to make of the conference's unexpected turn.

Cress broke the silence. " _Stars_ ," she exhaled, as though she had been holding her breath.

Wolf stood from the couch to manually turn off the netscreen. Turning back to them, he remarked, "That wasn't half as bad as it could have been."

"Poor thing." Scarlet shook her head regretfully, though her mouth quirked like she was suppressing a grin. "She was doing so well ..."

He shrugged. "I'd say she handled it."

There was a huff from Thorne as he pulled himself upright. When they looked at him, he grinned. "Did you see the look on her face?" he crowed. " _Priceless._ "

Scarlet raised her eyebrows. "Who's insensitive now?"

"I cannot _wait_ to hear from the emperor about this. Or to be there the next time he and Cinder see each other."

Cress's eyes widened in concern. "You think Kai was watching?"

"The whole world was watching, ma chérie. She's the new queen of Luna."

She winced. "No one's going to leave them alone after this."

"No," Scarlet conceded.

Cress looked from Thorne to Scarlet to Wolf, worry written plainly on her face. "They're being backed into a corner. The whole Cinder-seduced-the-emperor-for-a-ball-invitation thing was bad enough, but now people will _really_ start getting suspicious. And they won't exactly be wrong, will they?"

Thorne waggled his eyebrows at her. "Not wrong about what, exactly?" Bending closer to her with a conspirator's grin, he stage-whispered, "Do you _know something_?"

Cress pulled back, her cheeks red. "I ... I can't speak for Cinder. But isn't it obvious? He cares about her, and she cares about him. Probably more than either of them realize." She shook her head. "I don't know what they'll think when the public starts romanticizing them."

Wolf tipped his head. "You've been paying attention, haven't you?"

Cress ducked her head.

Quite suddenly, Scarlet stood up and put her hands on her hips. "It's about time someone interrogated those two, anyhow," she said decidedly. "I haven't gotten a word out of Cinder about it, but they can't hide from the future forever."

A slow grin spread over Thorne's face. "What will they call the marriage, I wonder … a political alliance, or an interplanetary happily ever –"

The office door whooshed open. They turned.

The Queen of Luna stood in the doorway, and she looked ready to throw something.

"Cinder!" Cress squeaked, launching herself off the couch. She actually backed up a few steps before stammering, "You did great! C-congratul-"

"No," Cinder snapped, throwing her hands up palm-out – a defensive gesture. There was a strained set to her shoulders. "Not right now. Just - could you all leave now? Please?"

Thorne glanced sidelong at Scarlet, raising an eyebrow, and Cinder's eyes flashed as she caught the look. Then she sighed and put her hands down.

"I'd like the office to myself now, if you wouldn't mind." Her voice was calm but quavered slightly, as if she were on the brink of losing her temper. "I need to take care of something."

Looking slightly crestfallen, Cress walked quickly out of the office, eyes downcast. Wolf followed her with just a nod to Cinder, who nodded back, lips pressed together. When he had gone, she faced Thorne and Scarlet, eyebrows raised in silent dismissal.

Thorne coughed into his fist. "So, that was really interesting. Would you care to discuss ...?"

Scarlet yanked on Thorne's arm. "I'm sure Cinder will fill us in later. We should go now."

With a dramatic sigh, Thorne sauntered out of the room, clapping Cinder on the shoulder as he passed. Scarlet followed close on his heels, but at the door she hesitated, giving the queen an appraising look.

Cinder sighed. "Go ahead. Say whatever you want."

Scarlet shrugged. "Well done."

Then she left.

 **iii.**

Thousands of kilometres away, in a lavish sitting room in the New Beijing palace, Emperor Kaito could only stare at the netscreen. It had long since gone dark, but he could not find it in himself to look elsewhere. All he could do was stare without seeing and remember the clamor of the Lunar media, how Cinder denied everything they said.

 _The emperor is only two years your elder, no?_

Of course this would happen. Eventually.

He hadn't thought that they could keep their more-than-friendship a secret, exactly. He hadn't thought very far into the future at all. It was too much to think about at a time like this, and whenever it had occurred to him that he may be in love, he'd put it out of his mind.

He rubbed at his forehead, mussing his fringe. It was growing long again. What with war reparations and putting Luna back together, he hadn't had the time to get it cut. Now he pushed it out of his eyes and leaned carefully back into the armchair, feeling strangely fragile.

Their time of tranquility was over.

He had to talk to Cinder.


	7. Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

Wow. I really can't believe it's finally done. My first multi-chapter story - which, in fact, dates back to the very beginning of my fanfiction-writing - is finished! Congratulate me, everyone. Most of it was written before book 4 was published, so naturally I had to consider whether or not this was going to be an AU ... but in the end I decided that so far, The Press Conference seems like a pretty plausible post-revolution story. Which means that Cinder's conversation with Kai on the balcony _did_ happen. Which kind of changes the way I've wrapped up this fic.

Anyway, with that in mind: this chapter isn't really about the lovebirds. It's about our beloved mechanic coming full circle - hence the name. I wasn't far into writing it before my theatrical tendencies won over. It's probably longer than anyone expected (myself included), and it may be a bit over-dramatic, but it's also _long_ overdue. So without further delay ... enjoy!

* * *

 **i.**

For the longest time, she hardly had any time to spare for thoughts of Kai – to think of that press conference, and where the two of them had left off, and what it all meant. Cinder had her hands full stabilising her kingdom and dealing with its capricious aristocracy, not to mention washing away Levana's influence … rebuilding Luna, in short. As it turned out, the duties of a queen hardly allowed time for sleep, let alone romantic flights of fancy.

But as summer approached, she was forced to examine those fancies again by the coming of the Eastern Commonwealth's annual peace festival. This year it was to celebrate the end of _two_ wars – and considering the bloody events of last autumn, it was a bigger occasion than ever. It would be a day for every Earthen to breathe a sigh of relief and decide that if no one had challenged Queen Selene Blackburn by now, no one ever would, and they could all sleep more soundly in their beds.

And the evening ball … well. The last one had involved political scandal, an exploding chandelier and a cyborg party crasher who lost her foot on the stairs. Who was to say nothing dramatic would happen this time around?

It wasn't the gossip that worried Cinder, though. The closer the day of the festival, the more she thought about the conversation she'd had with Kai that night on the balcony – the night before he departed for Earth, when he had posed a half-question that would echo in her ears for a long while yet.

 _I have to ask if you think, someday, you might consider being an empress_.

She was worried because come festival day, she would be returning to the place of her arrest and ultimate humiliation; because this time, _she_ was in the shoes of the Lunar queen, and …

And she had promised someone a dance.

 **ii.**

The sky outside was cloudless and full of pleasant breezes. One whirled through the window of the living room where Cinder sat at a long table, sorting through her messages, and ruffled a stack of papers which lay beside her portscreen.

The aristocratic letter of complaint she was skimming was much the same as hundreds of others that she'd received since her coronation. They were concerned about the preservation of their wealth, their rights in the court, traditions which they felt defined the Lunar identity, et cetera, all of which their new queen had pretty much done away with at the first opportunity. Cinder skipped through the last paragraph, noting – not for the first time – that the only nobles' tradition she _couldn't_ abolish was using ten words when they could use two.

Heaving a sigh of boredom, she put down the port and checked the countdown on her retina display. There were six hours, forty-seven minutes and nine seconds left until the peace festival ball.

Too soon. Not soon enough. Too soon.

The Lunar entourage had an entire wing to itself in the New Beijing palace; the guest wing, to be precise. This room, judging by the long table and corkboard walls, had once been a war room – appropriate, Cinder thought dryly, considering the people she dealt with there. She had left the Lunar nobility behind, but their comms came stubbornly through. Better to answer those in solitude than to have someone hear her constant groans of frustration.

Now she stretched, spine popping, and finally looked up from the table toward the one source of sunlight in the room – a wide, wide window that gave a brilliant view of the city. The heat had warmed her skin, the boredom mixing with her building anticipation of evenfall, and the gesture felt so familiar that for a moment – just for a moment – she was at her mechanic's booth again. Back in the sticky, stifling mess of a New Beijing market in the throes of the festival; she saw a grease-stained tablecloth in front of her, screws and nails all lined up in neat rows; her bangs clung to her forehead in the humid air. Her left foot was missing and there was a ghastly orange car in Adri's garage that would take her beyond the city limits. Tonight she would run away and finally be free.

The queer sense of déjà-vu vanished as quickly as it had set in, and Cinder blinked in confusion at the war table.

Right. One year ago today, her last hours as New Beijing's best mechanic had been spent turning away every customer that came to her booth.

 **iii.**

"Iko, could you help me with this?"

Iko bounded over, humming to herself, and expertly laced up the back of the dress. "There you are, Miss I-Don't-Need-A-Maid," she teased, turning the queen around to face the mirror. "Isn't that better?"

Cinder made a small sound of relief and stretched out her arms, which ached from the strain of trying to reach her shoulder blades. "Thanks."

The humming faded from her ears as Iko skipped out of the room, leaving Cinder to collect her thoughts. She examined her reflection. The dress was a dark wine red with golden netting on the sleeves and around the bodice, with a sweeping skirt and a modest neckline. Strangely enough, it suited her – a rare thing even on her best days. Probably because she'd succeeded in convincing her seamstresses that she did not need any of the mysterious materials that somehow made a dress full and poufy and impossible to move in.

If she was going to wear proper formal attire, she wanted to be ready to run for her life. Experience had taught her that.

Cinder exhaled through her nose, a small, displeased sound. She wasn't _nervous_ – of course not; she'd been through too much in the past months to be afraid of a little dancing. If she wasn't arrested, humiliated and almost killed tonight, she could probably enjoy herself.

Probably.

It was odd to think that maybe, some wide-eyed sixteen-year-old girl would watch from behind a pillar as Cinder danced with the emperor, much as Cinder had watched Levana and Kai at the last ball. Except, instead of observing how graceful and beautiful the queen was, everyone would remember the war and think the words _lost princess_ and _fugitive_ and _revolutionary_.

 _And the wolves all howl, aaah-ooooooooh …_

Cinder shook off the goosebumps and turned to pull on her boots. Though she had long ago lost her self-consciousness about open-toed shoes, and though Iko had tried to insist upon a more fashionable pair, they had finally decided on the most comfortable shoes possible: golden, low-heeled, and quite big enough for both her feet. As she did the laces, Cinder wondered wryly if she ought to double-check the wires in her cyborg foot. _Wouldn't want an encore of last year's spectacle._

When she finished with the boots and straightened, in all her finery, before the mirror (the _whoosh_ of shifting fabric), a shiver ran down her spine, and for a moment she was in a very different time –

Peony's silver dress fluttered in the corner of her eye, the silk gloves smooth against her arms. Her foot became a deadweight, barely connected to her leg, and she was flooded with a sense of panic – Kai would be announcing his engagement tonight – she couldn't let him, his life and Earth's freedom depended on it, there was hardly any time but she had to try, she had to _run –_

There was a startling knock on the door. "We leave in five minutes!" came Iko's voice, muffled through the wood.

Cinder stared into the mirror, trying to ground herself, until the odd sensation vanished.

 **iv.**

"Calm down, Your Majesty."

Kai didn't stop in his pacing, didn't even look at his advisor. "What do you mean, calm down? I'm _calm_. I'm very calm."

Torin sighed from where he sat in his armchair – the same armchair, incidentally, in which Linh Cinder had forced him to sit while kidnapping the emperor – and rattled the ice in his glass. "At this rate I'll have to request new carpeting."

" _Carpeting_?" Kai said incredulously, coming to a halt by the window. "The ball starts in twenty-five minutes, and you're worried about _carpeting_?"

"You're going to wear holes in it soon."

Scoffing, Kai dropped into the couch across from Torin. Fiddled with his sleeves, the buttons, wrung his hands. Opened his mouth to say something, snapped it shut. Tapped his fingers. Stared out the window.

"Your Majesty."

"Mm?"

"There's nothing wrong with being nervous."

"Why would I be nervous?" said Kai, somewhat defensively.

"Oh, I don't know," Torin mused, turning the glass around in his hand. "Perhaps because the Lunar Queen has come for a visit. That's bound to make anyone jumpy. And considering the fact that this is Linh-daren, whom you haven't seen for quite a while –"

"We comm each other every day. And I showed her around the guest wing, remember?"

"Well, there's going to be _dancing_ this time."

Kai leaned back and narrowed his eyes at his oldest friend. "Torin, are you developing a sense of humour?"

"Absolutely not," said Torin, raising his eyebrows, in a tone that said _maaaaybe._

With a huff, the emperor ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, all right, maybe I'm a little agitated, but can you blame me? You remember how the last ball went."

"All the more reason to enjoy yourself tonight. Hopefully we won't have to arrest anyone."

 **v.**

The hover ride was, thankfully, a bicker-fest. That was what happened when Iko was stuck in close quarters with Jacin and Kinney – they disagreed on _everything_ , the latter two being of ice-cool, unflappable stock, completely at odds with the android's hyperactive enthusiasm. Winter was a good mediator but loved everyone too much to really interfere … and Cinder suspected that she, too, enjoyed a good-natured argument.

" _You_ were the one who held her at gunpoint? _You?!"_

The topic had come up when Jacin muttered something about hoping this ball wouldn't go like the last one – uncannily similar to what Cinder had been thinking earlier – and Iko, who apparently hadn't heard the whole story yet, demanded a blow-by-blow description of the whole fiasco. Between Jacin and Cinder, they managed to put the scene back together, but when he got to the bit about Levana holding Cinder hostage, he was cut short by an indignant shriek.

Whatever begrudging trust the android had begun to put in the guard turned diplomat, it was being given a serious once-over.

"I didn't exactly do it of my own free will," Jacin said rather stiffly, meeting Iko's accusing glare. "Sybil was controlling me."

"This is important information," the android insisted, leaning forward across the hover. "When you're friends, _holding a gun to someone's head_ is kind of a big deal –" She gave Cinder an incredulous look. "And neither of you thought to tell me!"

"Well …" Cinder exchanged a look with Jacin, surprised to feel a kind of wry camaraderie between them. The hostage thing had become an old story to laugh at. "I guess it just never came up."

Iko sat back with a huff, slouching into the seat. "You see where I'm coming from, right?" she demanded Winter.

"Oh, yes," Winter said blithely. "If Jacin had threatened to shoot Selene, I would want to know. But it was not Jacin holding the gun. It was Thaumaturge Mira."

Iko groaned, as if to say _you are all hopeless._

Because they had called a regular black, inconspicuous city hover (by Cinder's especial request), the Lunar entourage arrived at the palace gates unnoticed and unmolested, which was just how the queen wanted it. Iko had contrived to have them come a little later than everyone else, so that they could "make an entrance" and turned a deaf ear to every protest; Cinder had to admit that it was a relief to emerge cautiously from the hover and find that no one waited for them at the gates but a few surprised-looking guards and officiants.

Now that they had passed into the main hall, booted and slippered feet echoing off the marble, the strains of an orchestral quartet reached their ears. And Cinder was brought up short, as if she'd been struck, by how _everything looked the same_. There were a few things missing – the pounding rain in the background, her deadweight of a foot, the D-COMM chip rattling around inside her calf, the mounting fear – but otherwise … she might be reliving that night all over again.

"Your Majesty?"

Kinney was standing by her side, looking concerned; her friends had paused just ahead of her. She'd lagged behind.

"You go on," she murmured. "I'll catch up."

"We can't come in without you –"

"Oh, don't be daft," Iko interrupted, grabbing his arm. She gave Cinder an understanding look. "Just take a moment."

Kinney grumbled but allowed himself to be dragged away. "And if someone attacks her from behind one of those statues –"

"Honestly, Liam, can't you stop being a guard long enough to let someone have a bit of peace? Don't tell me you plan on being a wallflower all night, you have to _dance_ …"

Cinder was deaf to their arguing. She let them walk ahead, as her own feet carried her slowly through the hall. She saw the drop ahead of her where the staircase swooped into the ballroom – heard, muffled as if through water, the laughter and music (so _familiar_ ) and then, with trumpet fanfare, each of her friends be announced. _Lunar diplomat Winter Hayle-Blackburn. Lunar diplomat Jacin Clay. Secretary to the Lunar Crown …_ A hesitation. _Iko_.

She approached the stairs, feeling wooden. Feeling nothing. The crowd below hadn't spotted her yet, the announcer having paused for a word with Iko. She seemed to be upbraiding him for something, maybe the way he'd said her title. Beside her, Winter and Jacin had been swallowed up by a group of Commonwealth diplomats, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries.

Cinder stood atop the staircase and couldn't breathe. Wondered how she had ended up in that spot again – how she had come full circle, after all this time. She stood looking down at the dancing and festivity, at the whirling skirts and flushed, smiling faces, and felt the floor tilt beneath her, felt herself shift to the past, to the present, to the past again. One moment she was Selene Blackburn, a visiting monarch come back to the country she'd grown up in, and the next –

And in the next, she was sixteen-year-old Linh Cinder, wearing a stolen gown and grease-stained gloves, peering out from behind a pillar and frantically looking for Kai amongst the crowd. Peony had only just died and the emperor newly crowned; the Lunar revolution was far off in the distant future …

She was Linh Cinder once again, dripping rainwater all over the priceless marble floor; she was Linh Cinder, resident mechanic, a girl crazy enough to race to the ball with one foot and no plan, all for the sake of some boy she barely knew.

She just stood there … and remembered.

 _"Why, Linh-mei, what a pleasure. We are so glad you could join us tonight."_

 _"You are?"_

 _"Please forgive my ignorance. I'm sure His Imperial Majesty will be glad you're arrived. Please, step this way, and I will have you announced."_

 _"Have me_ what _?"_ Her own voice came floating back to her, full of horror at what was about to transpire. _"Wait. Personal guests of … oh. Oh! No, no, you don't have to –"_

She almost didn't notice the ball attendant run up to her and bow, almost didn't hear his profuse apologies, but there was no way she could ignore the trumpet fanfare that blasted through the ballroom (the same thing she'd heard on this very spot, one year ago) and the magnified voice that announced,

"Please welcome to the 127th Annual Ball of the Eastern Commonwealth, Her Majesty the Lunar Queen, Selene Blackburn!"

 **vi.**

As one, every guest in the room turned to look up at her. As one, their expressions changed from recognition to wary respect, and together – men and women, young and old, market vendors and businesspeople and government officials – the citizens of New Beijing bowed to the queen.

Kai and Torin had prepared her for this; apparently Levana had been welcomed to last year's ball in the same way. But it didn't stave off the feeling of alarm at being _bowed to_ by people she'd once passed on the street every day. The people whose malfunctioning androids she had fixed, the people who'd either known her to be cyborg or hadn't – because that was how she'd categorised New Beijing, once upon a time. Cinder might have stood there forever, wondering if anyone would notice if she backed away and disappeared, if it weren't for the awkward scramble of the musical quartet as they put down their instruments so that they could stand up and bow with everyone else.

It was so silly and so natural that her lips ticked up – she felt herself relax just a bit. And it turned into a full smile when her eyes fell on a commanding figure in red, the only one who hadn't stopped to bow, coming closer through the crowd.

"Welcome, Your Majesty," he called up to her, grinning like the nineteen-year-old emperor that he was. "Welcome back."

 **vii.**

The best part about that ball was, to Cinder's surprise, _not_ the tasting of the delicious confections being carried around by waiters (which was usually what she looked forward to). Neither was it the two waltzes she got with Kai before he started asking other ladies for the sake of propriety. It was not the sight of Winter and Jacin walking around the ballroom in their own little happy world– for once, without political masks – and it was not the fact that both the emperor and his advisor made a point of asking Iko, the first android to ever attend the Commonwealth ball, to dance.

No … the best part, the thing that did so much to put her heart at ease …

"Your Majesty?"

In a rare moment where she had not been cornered by some government officiant or another, Cinder had opted to slip outside through the garden doors; the patio was dark except for a hanging lantern, and the sounds of music were muffled. When the young voice broke into her contented wallflower bubble, she looked left to see that she had been approached by a young boy, maybe ten or eleven years old. He looked nervous to be speaking to her but determined to do it – and he seemed vaguely familiar.

She smiled at him, trying to put as much warmth into it as possible. "Hello."

His cheeks reddened and he hurried into an awkward bow.

"No, no –" She held up her hands, palms flat out. "There's no need for that."

"I don't know if you remember me," the boy broke in, as if he needed to get something out before he lost his nerve. He sucked in a breath and looked up at her – without the mingled awe and intimidation that she had learned to expect from strangers. Almost as if he _knew_ her.

Cinder gave an apologetic shake of the head. "No, I'm sorry."

"My name is Chang Sunto," he blurted out. "You saved my life."

The name was a slap in the face, spinning her back to _that night._ Her mouth fell open.

 _Chang Sunto?_

"Dr. Erland showed me the footage," he mumbled, looking away awkwardly when she didn't respond. "When His Majesty figured out that it was you, he sent someone to tell me. You brought the cure to the quarantine and gave it to me, didn't you … when you used to be Linh Cinder?"

"Sunto?" she whispered.

The familiarity with which he spoke to her - not to the Lunar queen, but to the mechanic; the freshly pressed suit that didn't quite fit his frame, like he'd gotten it second-hand. A hundred little clues now added up to one name, but it was the deep sadness in his eyes that spoke the loudest. Of course, of _course_ it was him.

The plague survivor. The orphan who had looked at her in bleary confusion as she thrust a tiny phial into his blue-spotted hands and told him to drink.

The little boy who'd danced around her mechanic's booth, singing a song about ashes and death.

"I just wanted to say thank you," he told his shoes. "For giving it to me."

 _That cure was meant for my sister. I panicked, I was about to be arrested, it was a split-second decision. Don't thank me, because it was never meant for you._

But all that came out of her mouth was a stilted "Oh."

 _Do you know that I saw your mother die?_

Sunto swallowed, looking increasingly nervous. His eyes darted from the ground to her face to the patio wall, uncomfortable.

She didn't know what she was going to say until it was out of her mouth, but when she did, it seemed like the only thing she could have done. "I'm sorry."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I'm sorry you fell sick. I'm sorry that the plague ever came to Earth. I'm sorry about the war and death and the mess my people made of everything." The words rushed out as if she'd been holding them there, with her breath, for a very long time. Cinder closed her eyes. "I'm sorry about your mother, Sacha."

"H-how do you know about that?"

"Because I was there," she said. "My sister, Peony … she was sick too. I came to visit her at the quarantine and your mother was there. She, she wanted me to bring you."

Sunto looked as though he'd been struck with a hammer. "Really?" he whispered.

The baker's last words had been bottled up inside her for months and months: a mother's final request. Cinder had long wondered whether Chang Sacha's son would ever know that his mother had been thinking of him in her last moments. Now, at last, she could give them both some closure. "She said, _'Bring Sunto._ _I need to see him.'_ "

He stared at her, wide-eyed and stricken, a look that nearly stopped the electrical pulses in her metal fingers.

Maybe she shouldn't have told him. It would be a heavy burden to bear, even heavier for Sunto than it had been for her. But ... those words belonged with him. She couldn't help thinking that too many people had died in plague quarantines - surrounded by other sufferers, and yet utterly alone - with no one to hear what they had to say.

They stood quietly together under the lantern.

Finally she asked, "How did Dr. Erland treat you?"

"He was all right," said Sunto, after a moment. He sniffled a bit and turned his face away. "Ran some tests, took a couple of blood samples. I don't think he really thought he could replicate the cure, though. I wasn't any help."

She sighed. "I didn't help, either."

"You were tested, too?"

"Yeah. I was taken in for the cyborg draft. When the plague didn't kill me, Dr. Erland looked at my DNA and figured out that I was Lunar." Cinder shifted uncomfortably, her skirts shuffling on the patio floor, and clasped her hands in front of her. "I didn't know it then. Lunars are immune to letumosis … apparently. So he made me an official volunteer and I came back a few times to give blood samples."

"Oh."

Sunto clearly didn't know what to do with this information. But that was okay. Cinder had at least let him know that she knew how it felt, being forced to play the guinea pig of research scientists. Maybe it would be enough for both of them.

"I, um –" He glanced back at the pavilion. "My grandma will be getting worried."

"All right." She gave him a slight smile. "I wish you all the best, Chang Sunto."

"Thank you. Your Majesty."

 **viii.**

Kai found her there, leaning against stone wall of the patio.

"You okay?" he asked, stepping outside.

"What? Oh, yeah, fine." Cinder straightened and brushed imaginary dust off her skirt. "I, uh, I talked to Sunto."

His eyebrows rose with curiosity. " _Chang_ Sunto? The boy you gave the antidote?"

"Yep."

"How's he doing?"

She made a face, as if to say, _ehhhh._ "About as well as you could expect."

A shadow passed over Kai's expression. "Kid's been through a lot."

Studying him, Cinder realised that he was thinking of his own parents – both lost to letumosis. He, too, knew a little about what Sunto had suffered.

"Do you want to walk?" she suggested, gesturing down the stairs at the garden path.

He gave her a quick smile. "Sure."

"I mean, because – you know – we were interrupted last time."

For a moment he looked confused. Then his expression cleared and he laughed – a warm laugh. "Yes, I remember now. You were going to give me the D-COMM chip."

"I think the ball went better this time, don't you?"

"Much better," he agreed, setting off down the staircase.

But she didn't follow. The moment her heel struck the first step, vertigo pulled at her stomach and she saw herself racing down the stairs, silver skirts billowing around her; heard the screams and sounds of panic from the guests still trapped in the ballroom; felt the snap of wires in her foot and her own cries of pain as she tumbled head-over-heels down the stairs of the palace. She remembered the way she'd crumpled to the ground and how the misty rain felt against her skin.

Levana's voice echoed back to her. _Disgusting. Death would be merciful._

 _She wasn't a shell after all. How did she hide it?_

 _It matters not. She'll be dead soon enough._

And then – Kai, stooping to pick up the rusted cyborg foot still on the fifth step. Looking down at her with the eyes of someone who didn't know what was real and what was a lie.

 _You're even more painful to look at than she is_.

"Cinder?"

She blinked and the past fell away around her. Kai had already gone down, turning back at the bottom of the stairs when he realised that she hadn't followed him.

She had stopped on the fifth step.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern knitting his brow.

Cinder smiled shakily. "I'm okay."

And descended the rest of the stairs with both feet firmly attached.

 **ix.**

The gardens were dark and lovely at this hour. Vines, crab-apple trees, manicured shrubbery and flowering bushes all lined the stone-tiled path, which was lit by solar lanterns at strategic intervals. It was probable that a few guards had discreetly followed them, but they were good at their job and remained invisible.

The two of them wandered into a grove of cherry blossom trees whose petals looked ghostly in the moonlight. This quiet serenity, she thought, was nothing like the ostentatious Lunar menagerie.

Something occurred to her. "You know, I haven't seen Adri around." She glanced back toward the pavilion, though their view was blocked by a hanging curtain of blooms. "Is she here?"

His tone was conversational. "No, I don't think so."

"Huh. I would have thought she'd be too proud to avoid me. She's never missed the opportunity to attend a royal function before."

Kai cleared his throat. "She wasn't exactly invited."

"But all citizens of New Beijing are invited to the –" Cinder looked up at him and saw the studious way he was looking ahead. Keeping a straight face. "Okay. What did you do?"

He shrugged. "I may have struck her off the guest list. And a few other palace events."

"You _blacklisted_ her?"

"Well, she didn't behave very well last year, did she?"

Cinder shook her head. She was amazed – incredulous – she hadn't thought that he could be so petty. "Kai, our feud is over. She has an entire business to herself with my stepfather's patents – we don't have reason to resent each other anymore. I haven't even _spoken_ to her since the revolution."

"What about _my_ feud with her?" He sounded almost indignant. "She was a terrible stepmother to you. She took away your foot, dismantled Iko –"

"Oh, honestly!"

"Did you want her here tonight?"

Cinder glanced sidelong at him. The next lamp was far ahead on the garden path, and she couldn't see his face very well, but she knew him. He wasn't going to apologise for uninviting Adri, however silly of a revenge plan it was.

"No," she said, with a half-laugh. "No, not really …"

Kai grinned down at her. "Well, there, you see?"

They walked in silence for some minutes, enjoying the peace and quiet. Cinder clasped her hands together, knowing that she should broach the subject – _that_ subject – but not knowing how. How, without sounding as awkward as she felt?

 _Screw it_ , she thought. If they didn't talk about it now, someone else would – the only question was whether it be a gossip column or a full-page news editorial.

"So," she began, pausing to clear her throat. "… Kai."

"Cinder," he mimicked, a smile in his voice.

"We need to –" _talk. Decide on our future. Figure out where this is going_. "We need a game plan."

It was clearly not what he had been expecting her to say. "A game plan?"

"Yes, a _strategy_. We need to be able to coordinate our responses to the media when they start prying and asking questions. So that we don't contradict each other and give them cause to try to trip us up. Because they _did_ trip me up once, that first time, and ever since I've just clammed up whenever the subject came up –"

"Cinder, Cinder. Wait." Kai stopped walking and faced her, giving her no choice but to face him too. He looked genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

"The press conference," she said, as if it should be obvious.

Kai's eyebrows rose. "You mean, _your_ press conference?"

"Yeah. That one."

There was a pause.

"Ah," he said, and turned back down the path.

Cinder fell into step beside him. Now that she'd stepped over the painfully awkward moment of introduction, the words spilled faster. "You realise that they're going to keep rooting around, right? Nothing I say can convince them that we're not a couple. I mean, not that they're _wrong_ " – a nervous laugh tripped out of her – "but it would be nice if they could leave us in peace. But do you see where I'm coming from? I need to know how to react the next time they ask me about our friendship or point out that we're both young and beautiful and eligible for marriage, or something –"

She cut herself off abruptly. _Wonderful, Cinder._ She was not a rambler, as a general rule – she was hardly ever awkward about anything anymore – but this topic was an uncomfortable one at best. Eligible for marriage ... that was just it, wasn't it? She'd given a lot of thought to what Kai had asked her on that balcony, almost a year ago, but she was nowhere near certain of what she wanted. And this was neither the time nor the place to make that decision.

Kai had been silent during the whole of her speech, apparently thinking about it himself. When it was clear that she'd gotten it all off her chest, he cleared his throat and spoke up.

"You know that they can't pressure us into saying anything, right?"

"I know. I'm just saying that we should pick a story and stick to it."

The corner of his mouth twitched. "I think that _was_ our strategy up till this point."

"True," she sighed. "It hasn't been very effective, has it?"

"No. Though I think you've done the best you could on that front. As you say, you've turned them off, or at least tried to. I've been doing the same." He sighed as well. "I'm not sure that there's anything more we can do. Being questioned by the media kind of comes with the ... crown ... package."

"So I've noticed."

"I'll be perfectly honest - I was wondering the same thing after seeing your conference. And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that we should go on as we are." Kai tilted from one side to the other as they meandered along, a sort of relaxed penguin walk that she'd come to associate with him. "We can't announce ourselves –"

" _Oh_ no," she said with a chuckle.

"– and all of Earth and Luna know that we are friends – you, me, Scarlet and Winter and everyone. Politically speaking, it would be best to have our friendships out in the open; it might go a long way to begin healing the Earthen-Lunar rift."

Cinder nodded. That's what they had started to call the mutual contempt between the planet and its satellite.

"So, really, best to stick to the teammate-friendship story until we're engaged."

She whipped her head around, eyes wide. Maybe she'd heard him incorrectly. "Sorry?"

Kai seemed to realise what he'd said. "Oh, stars –" He faltered, and Cinder stopped beside him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean – I meant if, _if_ we get engaged. Because, you know, that would make us … official." He dragged his hands down his face. "I didn't mean to presume … I'm sorry. I'm not, I wasn't asking for an answer."

Maybe it was a trick of the light, but he looked like he blushing. Cinder's lips quirked with amusement. "I know," she said, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. "It's all right. I forgive you."

The little garden path had led them to a weeping willow tree. Kai pushed aside the curtain of trailing branches, motioning for Cinder to go through. She stepped inside, he followed, and a smile broke over her face at what she saw – a little carved bench standing against the gnarled tree trunk. The hanging willow branches created a cozy little alcove around it.

Kai grinned at her and reached under the bench to produce a handheld solar lantern.

"You've come prepared," she remarked, sitting down with a rustle of red skirts.

"It's a favourite hideaway of mine," he told her, lighting the lantern. Soft yellow light sprang through the alcove. "Torin knows all the others. This is where I go when I could use a minute or two of peace."

Cinder gave the arm of the bench an approving pat.

Kai sat down beside her, their arms and shoulders pressed together. She let herself slouch, a blessing after months of keeping up posture, and her head fall to his shoulder. Her eyes drifted shut. They sat like that for a few minutes, in a silence that felt like a breath of relief. There was something wonderful about simply being in each other's company.

After a while, he spoke up again. "I don't think that we have to decide on anything. If we give the press the same neutral answers again and again, eventually they'll stop caring."

"Are you sure?"

He shrugged against her. "What else can we do?"

He was probably right – it was their best option – but she wasn't really convinced. "I don't think there's any such thing as a neutral answer."

"I wouldn't say that."

"No?"

"I once told them, _'I don't see that her being cyborg is relevant'_." He gave her a sidelong glance. "Don't know if you – were you watching, by the way?"

"Thorne and I had just escaped from prison," Cinder remembered, the corner of her mouth ticking with amusement even as she sparked from the memory. How many times had she replayed it in her head, the words and his expression and tone of voice?

"What's funny?"

"It was a highly incriminating conference, you know. He teased me about it afterward. I remember him saying something about perfectly tousled hair and chocolatey eyes –" She broke off, knowing that she should be turning red.

Kai nudged her playfully. "Go on."

"That's all there is. I interrupted him."

"What a shame," he said, in a tone of mock curiosity. "I wonder what else he might have said."

She smirked a little, feeling uncharacteristically smug. "I don't have to."

Instead of coming up with a snappy comeback, as she expected him to, there was a pause. Then he said, " _Well_ then," in a surprised sort of way, as if he'd never expected her to say something like that. Cinder smiled, knowing that he was secretly pleased.

Strains of cello music drifted back to them on the wind. They both sat quietly for a moment, listening to the sounds of festivity, trying to pick out flashes of light from the ballroom windows. They hadn't gone all that far from the pavilion.

She heard Kai inhale deeply.

"Do you remember …"

Cinder didn't have to ask what he was talking about. The night of the peace festival – the ball – the brief hours during which she managed to get herself arrested, almost killed, and oh, yeah, to lose her foot on the stairs. All before escaping prison and Levana declaring war.

Good times.

"It's kind of hard to forget any of it," she sighed. That evening was burned into her mind for all eternity. "You know, I was feeling a bit strange this afternoon. Déjà-vu. I almost expected something to go wrong again."

"I know what you mean," he said.

"I remember how hot it was and how much I missed Iko. I fixed a little girl's portscreen and then – and then you came to my booth." The old pang of regret shot through her at the thought of how Kai had tried to talk to her, and how she'd done her level best to turn him away. "You gave me those gloves …"

"And then your stepsister showed up," he sighed.

She smiled a little at the residual annoyance in his voice, as if Pearl was a horrible in-law that he was now allowed to openly dislike. "I remember watching your coronation," she went on, fingering the dark red fabric of her dress. "From home … on my retina scanner. I wanted to be there with you."

Kai glanced down at her. "Really?"

She smiled to herself, head still on his shoulder. "Really, really."

"I wish you had been."

"Me, too. But I was footless at the time. It might have freaked out your hairdresser."

A laugh burst from his chest, jostling her. After a moment, he murmured, "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we'd run away to Europe, like you suggested." He paused. "Never mind, don't answer that. You were only joking."

Ah. Right. She'd never told him.

"No," Cinder said slowly. "I wasn't."

There was a silence.

Then he shifted, trying to see her face. "Really? You were serious?"

"Not about inviting you. I mean, I knew you couldn't. It was just ... to pretend." Cinder straightened so she could look him in the eye. "But I _was_ planning to go to Europe. It was supposed to be the night of the ball, when no one would be around. I fixed up the old car and bought gas and everything – Adri would never have let me go, it was my one chance."

His eyes widened with understanding. "That's why you didn't want to talk to me. Because you were leaving. So why didn't you?" But he shook his head and answered himself before she could. "Of course - you came to tell me that I was in danger." Something like amazement, or guilt, came over his face. "You stayed because of me."

"Because of Levana," she corrected him. "And Nainsi, and what Cress told me … but yeah, more or less because of you."

They were both silent for a moment. Cinder could guess at what he was thinking – that she had turned away from freedom, from the only future she had ever wanted, in order to give him a warning. She had put Earth before herself and set off a long chain of events that would culminate in the war.

"Do you regret it?" he asked hesitantly.

She didn't have to think about it. "No. I would do it all over again."

"I would, too," he admitted, sounding almost apologetic. "Even the part where I arrested you. If things worked out as well as they did, well, I wouldn't want to change anything."

"All's well that ends well," she agreed.

And even as she spoke, the tightness in her chest eased a little. The war was won and the Lunar throne secured - everything _had_ turned out okay. She might have a kingdom to worry about, but she didn't have to question how she stood with Kai.

 _Someday_ , she had told him, and really that was all the answer either of them needed. A maybe, a promise.

They had all the time in the world.


End file.
